As a Christian, today has profound meaning for me. As part of that meaning, I was moved this morning by a quotation that my sister sent to me. While it is written specifically for women, the message is universal. It was written by a woman named Chieko Okasaki, in her book Lighten Up:
We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that he experienced everything- absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer- how it was for your mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced Napalm in Vietnam. He knows about drug addiction and alcoholism.
Let me go further. There is nothing you have experienced as a woman that he does not also know and recognize. On a profound level, he understands the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He knows about PMS and cramps and menopause. He understands about rape and infertility and abortion. His last recorded words to his disciples were, “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) He understands your mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has Down syndrome. He knows your mother-rage when a trusted babysitter sexually abuses your two-year-old, when someone gives your thirteen-year-old drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect. Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness, in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.
So much of life can be filled with a lonely emptiness that says, "No one understands this. No parent can understand the uniqueness of my challenges with my children's decisions. No spouse has seen the kind of difficulties in my marriage. No adult can identify with the unique sense of worthlessness that accompanies my financial difficulties, despite my abilities. I am alone in my quiet despair."
When I am in tune enough to remember that simple message, I am calmed and comforted. In fact, of all of the names given to the spirit of God, "Comforter" appeals to me the most. The scriptures tell us that, "The Comforter knoweth all things, and beareth record of the Father and of the Son." That feeling--that my Lord has experienced my exact situation, and that His spirit knows and bears record of those experiences--makes life bearable, enables me to be positive, gets me out of bed when I don't want to, holds my hand when I am lonely, softens my heart when I am angry, and deepens my love for my children, my wife and my life.
Posted by: wholesale jerseys | September 06, 2011 at 02:52 AM